Travel fears for London's 2012 Games

Saturday 9 August 2008 19.01 EDT
First published on Saturday 9 August 2008 19.01 EDT

Boris Johnson was facing questions last night over plans to stage a cashless Olympic Games after yesterday's decision to fire the company responsible for running London's Oyster travel card.

The consortium behind Oyster had been in talks about providing a secure swipecard that would allow visitors to the 2012 Games to pay for their travel to venues and their entry tickets on the same swipecard, creating a 'plastic Olympics' where spectators did not have to carry cash.

But industry insiders said Friday's decision by Transport for London to break the contract from August 2010 would leave any future supplier with little chance of synchronising the technology in time.

Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat transport spokesman, said he had recently been briefed on the plans for secure ticketing involving Oyster. 'This is a worrying development,' he said. 'There is a genuine concern as to the impact on the Olympics, given the work I know was going on with regard to integrated ticketing for events and travel.'

The Transys consortium, which has held the contract for the past decade, declined to comment beyond a statement saying that London transport had changed in the 10 years it has held the contract and negotiations were taking place 'for the benefit of all stakeholders'.

But Shashi Varma, director of the Oyster programme of Transport for London, insisted it would still be able to deliver whatever the Games required with another contractor. 'We have had lots of negotiations with the Olympic Delivery Authority. When they settle down and figure out what kind of ticketing system they want, we will figure out what we need to do. But in some way shape or form Oyster is going to be used.'